About this Book

Beyond the Book

Afghanistan lies on the
historically important
trading routes between the
Middle East and the Indian
sub-continent. As a result of
numerous invasions and
migrations it is made up of many
different ethnic groups
including Baluch, Chahar Aimak,
Turkmen, Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik,
Uzbek, Nuristani, Arab, Kirghiz,
Pashai and Persian.

Historically, the Pashtun
nationality has been the most
dominant representing about 50%
of the total population.
Islam was brought to
Afghanistan in the eighth
century by Arabs, and the vast
majority of the country today
are Muslims. After Arab rule
there was a period of relative
independence when
semi-independent states began to
form, but these were crushed by
the Mongol invasions of the 13th
century. Following the collapse
of Mongol rule in the 16th
century Afghan found itself
caught between the Mughals of
northern India and the Safavids
of Iran.

In 1747 a power vacuum in
central Asia enabled Ahmed
Shah, a Pashtun, to take
control of Afghanistan and build
up an empire encompassing
various neighboring countries. His
descendants ruled Afghanistan
for about 200 years, but quickly
lost control of the land he had
conquered outside of the
country.

In the 1800s Afghanistan faced
new intervention from the
British Empire and
Czarist Russia. The British
saw the Hindu Kush of
Afghanistan as a natural barrier
to prevent invasion of their
holdings in India; at the same
time, the
Russians were expanding south
and east swallowing up parts of
Central Asia. The British
invaded Afghanistan twice from
India with the intent of
installing a puppet government.
The first invasion (1838) was
defeated by a popular uprising.
In the second Anglo-Afghan
War (1878) the British took
control and installed a puppet
ruler.

Afghanistan remained a British
protectorate until 1919 at which
time the king of Afghanistan,
Amanullah, declared his
country's independence
by signing a treaty with Lenin
and declaring war on Britain. In
1929 Amanullah was forced to
abdicate and different warlords
contended for power until a new
king took power. The new king ruled for
four years before being
assassinated; at which time
Muhammad Zahir Shah became
king,
and ruled autocratically for 40
years.

In 1973 the king was overthrown
by Daoud, a member of his own
family, and a republic
was declared. Daoud seized power
with the help of an underground
pro-Moscow communist group, the
Peoples Democratic Party of
Afghanistan (PDPA) in return
for promises of positions in his
government. In 1979, when it
became clear that Daoud was not
going to deliver on his
promises, the PDPA seized
power and declared
Afghanistan to be a secular
state. They sought rights for
women and tried to implement
land reforms. The party quickly
met with resistance from without
and started to factionalize from
within. At this point, the
neighboring Soviet Union
invaded and handed power to
Karmal, the leader of the more
moderate faction of the PDPA.

The Soviet Union found
themselves needing to commit
more and more troops to prop up
the unpopular government.
Islamic fundamentalist groups
(mujahadeen) sprang up and waged
guerilla warfare; many of the
groups operated from camps set
up by the CIA and Pakistanis
within Pakistan. The CIA began
providing military training to
the Mujahadeen, providing
billions of dollars of weapons,
including sophisticated
anti-aircraft and anti-tank
missiles. The Saudis and Persian
Gulf Emirates contributed
billions of dollars to
Mujahadeen coffers, and
thousands of Arabs responded to
the Mujahadeen's call for jihad,
including the wealthy Saudi
playboy, Osama bin Laden,
who quickly became one of the
CIA's most important operatives
in its proxy war against
communism.

In 1989 the Soviets withdrew,
and the CIA moved its focus
elsewhere. The multiple
Mujahadeen factors began
fighting amongst themselves, and
in 1992 toppled the PDPA
government. From 1992 to 1996
various different warlords
occupied different cities and
regions in the country and
continued to wage war against
each other. Although the CIA had
withdrawn from the arena, the
Pakistani Intelligent forces
maintained an interest and aided
in creating a new fundamentalist
movement, the Taliban,
building up its ranks from the
many madrassas (Islamic
religious schools) that had
sprung up in the Afghan refugee
camps inside Pakistan. In 1996,
the Taliban captured Kabul
forcing the remaining warlords
into the far north of the
country where they formed the
Northern Alliance.

The Taliban created a theocratic
state based on their
interpretations of the Koran.
Women had already been severely
repressed by the various warlord
regimes, but under the Taliban
things got much worse - they
were forbidden from attending
school, having jobs or even from
leaving the house unless covered
by a burkah and accompanied by a
man. The country became
politically and diplomatically
isolated. Then came 9/11.
Bin Laden, having fallen out of
favor in Saudi Arabia, had
returned to Afghanistan; the
Taliban refused to hand him over
without proof of his crimes, so
the Americans invaded.

This "beyond the book article" relates to A Thousand Splendid Suns. It originally ran in June 2007 and has been updated for the
November 2008 paperback edition.